Product Details

Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1982) serves up a great, steaming pile of the famed British comedy troupe's finest, funniest, and foulest work. Culled from their four-night stand at the Hollywood Bowl in 1980, this selection of sketches and songs includes some of the most storied material from the BBC series, Monty Python's Flying Circus. Numbers include the sexually confused lumberjack, the Ministry of Silly Walks, the Argument Clinic, and the exploding balladeer. Some of the group's funnier short-film pieces are featured as well, including the International Philosophy Match (Germany vs. Greece) and Terry Gilliam's animated pieces. This program is a fine introduction for viewers unaccustomed to Monty Python's peculiar brand of humor, and it will become clear where The Kids in the Hall got their shtick. Monty Python aficionados will enjoy seeing the lads do their thing for a live crowd, and there's a nice (though "nice" hardly seems the word) rapport with the audience. The sketches are looser and less hermetic than those in the Monty Python show or movies, such as 1974's Monty Python and the Holy Grail or 1983's Monty Python's the Meaning of Life. Aside from the unusual setting, there's nothing particularly revelatory about Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl. But for Python fans and fanatics--and they are legion--this won't matter a jot.